War Made New24:42

Copy the code below to embed the WBUR audio player on your site

In the run-up to the war in Iraq, essayist Max Boot was in full lather to sound the neo-conservative battle cry. Big powers, he argued, had to show their stuff, militarily, to stay on top.

Three years and nearly three thousand US soldiers dead later, Max Boot is bleak on Iraq. It's been badly fought, he says, and all options are now bad.

But he's still beating the drum for the aggressive evolution and application of American military power. From Mongols on horseback to the British Empire, he says, great powers fell when they missed a turn in military history. And the US may be missing a turn right now.

Max Boot says Iraq is a bust, and calls for a revolution in the American way of war.

Guests:

Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the new book "War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History 1500 - Today"